Posers of the Week, Part II

Crouching Tiger? Coiled Like a Squirrel Prepared to Strike.

Ah, the gift that keeps on giving. The guy doesn’t realize that from this crouch his chop must travel such a long distance, and he must move up against an upright opponent, that it will never land. This guy makes the Hillbilly Ninja look like Bruce Lee.

Famous last words: “Oh, by the way, I’m going to crouch and extend my leg, but please don’t crush my kneecap like a cockroach, Mr. Mugger.”

One option is to bull rush the guy. Just charge into him headlong. Even a drunk can figure that one out, and this guy is toast, because his weapons (hands and feet) are not prepared to strike. He presents his side to the opponent. My counter to the side stance is to Thai kick the opponent’s lead leg, then move in behind him to blast his kidneys and the back of his head/neck.

Note the right hand resting above the knee, which in kung-fu is called, “Old Man Climbs the Stairs.”

In his hunched over stance, his rear foot points away from his opponent. Observe how he must twist his foot in order to launch his attack. Hint: Keep your toes pointed in the direction of the opponent. When he chops (photo 3, lower left), his body still faces away from the opponent, which means that his strike is all arm and no body, which results in a weak, sloppy, ineffectual blow.

If I trap/check his forward left elbow with my right hand, how is he going to counter it?

4 Responses to “Posers of the Week, Part II”

Darrin, I think why WWII combatives is so popular is that it is easy to learn the few moves from the famous books of that period and then call yourself a master without having to learn under a real teacher.

A problem is the lack of a solid foundation. Anybody with the least training in boxing, wrestling, arnis, etc. would know not to crouch sideways to an opponent, or the importance of getting your body behind the blow or throw.

In Dagger Disarms part 1 they show only two blocks that “should never” be done in the real world. Note that they show only one photo for each and do not show or are aware of the follow through of these techniques they say not to do. The X-block in Jujutsu is a soft block, it does not hold the arm there but merely receives the arm and then moves it to the side as the force is coming down. Their defense in part 1 all revolve around a Shoto or chop to the knife arm with no control of the weapon holding arm.

Part 2 of Dagger Disarms shows modern photos not matching the setting and tone of part 1 and shows close up knife threats but here the chop would not work in most cases but that is all you are shown in part 1.

In another article the first photo shown above is noted to be stable for kicks and if you were fighting on the deck of a rolling ship you would take the hand off the knee and place it on the deck further putting you over on your side, talk about 0 mobility!

I will read the rest of the articles and may indeed learn something new but seriously doubt that I’ll add any of the techniques to my personal style.

The dagger has the defender on the opponent’s off side, yet how does he get there? The defender is standing front of the perp, then in photo two he’s three feet off to the left of the perp at a 90 degree angle. It’s like the StarTrek episodes where there’s a BOING and James Kirk instantly reappears tenty feet away.

I think there’s just a huge problem with fundamentals, like stance, weight distribution, positioning, etc.